Each year Central Connecticut State University (CCSU) endeavors to rank the most and least literate cities in America. Washington, D.C., has claimed the top spot four years in a row. Seattle, Minneapolis, Atlanta and Pittsburgh are the other members of the top five.

It's important to know what the study measures. It uses six categories: library systems, bookstores, educational attainment, digital readership, and newspapers and other publications. It essentially quantifies the amount of literacy-related activity within a community, not necessarily the quality of that activity. There are lots of D.C.-based "other" publications that spew toxic fumes beyond its borders.

That said, for the most part, more of this activity is probably better, provided the operators wallowing in the cesspool are a minority.

One might think the least literate cities should correspond with low incomes, and while Stockton, El Paso and San Antonio are well below the median, Bakersfield ranks 12th highest out of the 77 cities studied.

And as noted by Dr. John W. Miller, president of CCSU and the study's head, New Orleans is in the top 25 percent of cities in terms of literacy while having a significantly lower median household income than any of the cities in the bottom five.

Still, poorer cities tend to be less literate.

The study shows that literacy is not a purely economic concern, but a cultural one. Even relatively impoverished communities can still foster an atmosphere that values literacy-related activity.

In reviewing the data, I believe the most common and important trait in determining the amount of literacy-related activity is education. All of the cities in the bottom five are in the lowest quartile when it comes to educational achievement, in terms of percentages of people with high school diplomas and college degrees.

Given this, it's not surprising that they also have poorly resourced and underused library systems and very few retail bookstores. At a population of 350,000, Bakersfield had only one independent bookstore.

The question is, what, if anything, can we do about it? And what lessons should those of us who live in more literate cities such as Chicago take away?

Maybe it's a "if you build it, they will come" deal, where if you provide an atmosphere of literacy, cities will draw the professional, educated population that they want.

I'm a little skeptical of this. New Orleans sticks in my mind; a wonderful place of rich culture and tradition that suffers from some of the worst income inequality in the nation. Indie bookstores probably don't have much trickle-down effect.

Here's what I'm confident of, though: If you lose it, people will leave, and they might not come back. At some point, it seems as though cities can go into a literacy death spiral, and even the most prosperous cities are vulnerable if we don't protect these things. I guess my recent paeans to libraries and bookstores and independent publishing are manifestations of me worrying publicly about it.

States and municipalities routinely give tax breaks to "job creators," such as the approximately $60 million in tax breaks and incentives Chicago gave to Boeing to relocate their headquarters there. Closer to my current home, South Carolina gave Boeing an estimated $900 million to locate its Dreamliner plant in North Charleston.

More jobs are great, but maybe we could pause and reflect that when we're not working, we have lives to lead, and places that embrace books and reading are simply better places to do that living.

It's like a garden with good soil. It may not be sufficient, but it's necessary.

Biblioracle John Warner is the author of "The Funny Man." Follow him on Twitter @Biblioracle.

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The Biblioracle offers his recommendations

1. "Eusebius: The Church History" by Paul L. Maier

2. "Baseball in Blue and Gray" by George B. Kirsch

3. "Main Street" by Sinclair Lewis

4. "The Snake WomanSnakewoman of Little Egypt" by Robert Hellenga

5. "Nothin' but Blue Skies" by Edward McClelland

— Bill D., Des Plaines

Bill was the recipient of a recommendation in February of this year, and when I pointed him toward "Lonesome Dove," I told him I'd give him a mulligan if he'd already read it as I suspected. This is his mulligan. I'm going nonfiction this time, for a book I was somewhat late to, but which is a fascinating bit of American history that I'd never heard of before, "Devil in the Grove" by Gilbert King.

1. "Eleanor & Park" by Rainbow Rowell

2. "Love Minus Eighty" by Will McIntosh

3. "The Martian" by Andy Weir

4. "The End is Nigh" edited by John Joseph Adams and Hugh Howey

5. "The Troop" by Nick Cutter

— Dean B., Alexandria, Va.

Dean is another return customer. Last time out I recommended "Dope" by Sara Gran. This time, I have just the book. I read this in maybe 90 minutes tops because I couldn't put it down and I wanted to know what was going to happen next with each turn of the page. "Annihilation" by Jeff VanderMeer.

1. "Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore" by Robin Sloan

2. "The Luminaries" by Eleanor Catton

3. "Seeing" by Jose Saramago

4. "The Ocean at the End of the Lane" by Neil Gaiman

5. "The Complete Alcatraz" by Brandon Sanderson

— Peer S., Berlin, Germany

This one is a total flier. It's thick and weird and I have a hard time recommending it to very many readers, but Peer looks up to the task. "A Naked Singularity" by Sergio de la Pava.